Liam Norcliffe

A devastated wife has spoken of her family’s heartbreak after her husband was left permanently disabled in an ‘horrific’ car crash.

Peter Beech suffered a fractured neck, fractured elbow and internal injuries after a smash on the A60 near Hodthorpe.

His wife Lisa said that a ‘split-second decision’ by a driver had ‘completely ruined’ their lives.

The couple, who have three children together, Thomas, 16, Rogan, 11, and Rhianna, nine, were speaking after a Worksop man was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following a three-day trial at Derby Crown Court.

“It is hard to think that a stranger has completely changed our lives,” Lisa, of Holmefield Road, Whitwell, said.

“A split-second decision to get him home quickly has completely ruined Peter’s life, my children’s lives and Peter’s mum’s life.”

“The judge said that the consequences were life changing and that no sentence he passed would give Peter the life back he had before.”

The crash occurred at around 6.15am on Valentine’s Day last year on the A60 Mansfield road between Worksop and Hodthorpe.

Peter, who was driving a green Renault Megane, was hit by a red Ford Fiesta after the driver of a third car, a white Fiat Brava, Dylan Salt, 44, tried to overtake a burger van.

Salt, who claimed he was not aware that a crash had taken place, carried on his journey towards the Worksop roundabout. However, a driver of a coal truck followed him and noted down his registration plate and reported the incident to the police.

Lisa, 36, deputy manager at Cliff House care home, Clowne, said: “Peter went to work that morning and left me my flowers and card for Valentine’s Day and set off.”

“To see him like that was soul destroying. My legs buckled and my senior matron was holding me.”

“I was absolutely heartbroken but I couldn’t let Pete know that because he was absolutely petrified.”

“I was making jokes like ‘I hope you’ve got clean underwear on’ and ‘if you wanted me to have the night off for Valentine’s there are other ways you could have done it’.”

Peter, 42, a charge hand at the former Rossington Colliery, said that he was ‘lucky to be alive’.

“I have constant pain in my neck, shoulders, back and legs,” he said. I have spinal nerve damage meaning I have loss of feeling in my right leg and groin.”

Salt, of Oakholme Avenue, Worksop, who was driving the white Fiat Brava, was sentenced to 18-months in custody, suspended for two years, ordered to carry out 240 hours’ unpaid work in the community, disqualified from driving for two years and must pay £2,000 court fees.

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